beastmakerblog

the adventures of the owners of beastmaker.co.uk

Monday, August 31, 2009

sendtember

So the wettest month of the year is drawing to a close and people can get keen for the 3 best months of the year for trying most projects Sept, Oct and Nov are some of the driest, coolest and most reliable months in the northern hemisphere, i find it interesting how many people insist on trying to climb hard in august when it is the worst month in the year statistically, hot and wet are too naughty words in bouldering. August is for augmenting, so long as your near a fan then it's a good time to sneak in some sly training ready for when good conditions arrive.

Which happily coincides with the fact that i'm unable to climb outside due to a v bad finger injury. sustained on an outdoor project.

Board production-wise we are now upto mid-ish july in the back order but should be upto mid august by next saturday, we've had one final hiccup but this was nothing too major, more pernickety.

It's a big relief for all of us to be going again and hopefully we can get onto a big batch of 1000 series next as we haven't forgotten don't worry.

Monday, August 24, 2009

monk life.

Filmed by a young Tom Newman, whacked on here with Malc's permission, one of the best bits of bouldering history in't UK. The footage is so old it took a bit of getting off the tape without distortion, this has been done now with the sacrifice of a rare malc roar. Also someone ought to tell springer that Catapult has been downclimbed!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

back in business

As of yesterday we are consistently producing boards again, and for this batch each board will be sanded and finished by Ned 'champ' Feehally. I'll be sending emails out from tomorrow and this first batch should be around 60 boards, with more being made come next monday.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

snakes and ladders.

Well it seems an age since i last updated this, however a lot has gone on since last week. Ned, Dave, Katy and Tom graced northumberland and st bees with a visit a piece, Thumberland yielded some cracking FA's along with some good highball bloccage. And Stbees was as tranquil as ever, i rested up inorder to try a hard project the following day, so i merely contented myself with a swim in the sea, a spot of exploring, a smidgen of sun bathing, and a bit of health and safety by replacing the rope on the fishermans steps descent, which badly needs rebolted too. Tim's crack recieved 2 sends from Ned and Tom and it was declared, unequivocally the best 7c in the UK (when dry), despite attempted counter arguments from many a region. the vid of me doing it a few weeks ago is here.

Dave was crushing until he bust a nail on tim's crack and tripped over his blouse, and Katy contented herself with ticking a load of classics and swimming in a pair of trousers that started off looking like shorts but ended up as victorian bloomers. Which was funny until the vacuum packing effect of sea water on boxer shorts was noticed.

The following day it appeared that all roads led to the bowderstone (especially the M6), with a line up of stealthy waddage, locals and some guy called Steve Dunning, who cannot in anyway be described as stealthy. luckily i decided to warm up on a bunch of stuff on the busy side in my daescents and then rush round the back to escape the crowds and throw myself at the sisyphusian task that was my project, all was going well as can be on something which can only be described as on the ragged edge of my ability, despite a seepy handhold. That was until someone fired a gun from my left ring finger and the next 2 months came crashing to the floor with a quiet sense of foolishness and the retrospective insight of me warming up like a tool then jumping on the crimpiest line i've ever tried. 4 days in and i can now pick up a kettle (YYFY) and pretty soon i reckon ill be picking up something like a chair, a heavy wooden one though, none of that plastic crap.

I do actually have a serious recovery plan, but there is no point writing stuff down as it'll only go wrong and missed deadlines only serve to antagonise...

Did i mention that i'm a complete tool? honestly who gets better from an injury and then goes out 2 weeks later and tries such a hard project, reality has hit hard like a 15" frying pan round the chops in the last few days (atleast it's A1 and not A2).

Speaking of fustration, our PC has decided it wants to only operate in 2D when milling the boards, the machine is now fully working, it's just that the computer seems to have RAM issues. As of today it will be getting RAMMED somewhere only miners are familiar with if it doesn't work, as at present it is all that is standing in our way of producing endless boards.